Today I sat down and shared a conversation with a long-time friend and mentor of mine who used to live in the same city as me. He has been living in a different city for a few years now and has been working on making his dreams of owning his own recovery program come true. He stopped by to pay me a visit and like always our conversation drifted towards talk of recovery. We went back and forth talking about people we have met and different experiences we have had. Some include trying to get people to surrender to the fact that they are a candidate for recovery and should consider engaging in the necessary steps to ensure that they are able to remain abstinent from using and abusing substances. I posed the question,
“What does it really take for a person to be willing to do anything to stay sober?” Out of my experience over the past 11 years this has been something I have wracked my brain repeatedly about. On the front-end people must be aware that not everyone is going to make it. The odds are stacked against people attempting to get sober and even more so to remain sober long term. In an article written by William Knack, (AA World Services) wrote that a person can not remain sober without undergoing a profound personality change (Knack,2009). This is a tall order. When people come looking for help and are in a place in their lives where they find themselves hopeless and unable to rebound they are willing to do anything for relief. As time goes on and if they aren’t treating their spiritual malady with service to others, surrender to alternate beliefs, self-appraisal and basically to have the willingness to take direction and follow through, then those people have a hard time sticking around. We shared many accounts of where we had given someone our all and they had hang-ups such as relationships, commitments, job prospects etc, and all these things ended up getting in the way of their recovery. I just kept thinking to myself why do people do what they do? If they are given a new way of life and all they must do is stay on the path, then why do they get derailed? Of course, this is the common dilemma with working with others and one of the hardest parts to be apart of. I am always reminded that not everyone gets recovery, but those who are broken down enough and are willing to do whatever they can and work towards something different, those people stand a chance and this thought reminds me of why I remain active. Knack, W. A. (2009). Psychotherapy and alcoholics anonymous: An integrated approach. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 19(1), 86-109. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/10.1037/a0015447
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AuthorMy name is Paul Cirerol and I am a traveler on the road. ArchivesCategories |